Hormones
by Kyralea
Summary: Contrary to popular opinion there was one person who, due to personal experiance, was absolutely certain that Echizen Ryoma did, in fact, have hormones.  Rated for partial nudity and heavy petting  .


A/N: I wrote this story, literally, years ago. I could have SWORN I had posted it, but I looked a few days ago, and it wasn't there! Anyway, this story was written as a part of an exchange. I can't remember exactly who I wrote it for, but I know my prompt had to do with "Hormones". Even though this was written quite a long time ago, I look at it in comparison to the other thing I've posted, and I'm really impressed at the differance in quality. I can only hope that I continue to improve at a similar rate. ^.^

I'm relatively sure that I was allowed to post this once the exchange was finished, and just forgot. If not, and the original recipiant finds this, please forgive me! I stumbled across this a few days ago, and I really liked it, and just decided I wanted to post it. ^.^

Enjoy!

_**Hormones**_

It was a calm, peaceful day at Sakuno's high school. She had retreated to a secluded part of the courtyard surrounding the school, a spot tucked just inside the school wall. There were four other picnic benches, a few large trees, and a narrow dirt path leading from the school, past her bench and on toward the tennis courts. She'd been there since the end-of-day bell had rung, hoping to get some actual studying done before she had to go…erm…study.

A light blush tinted her cheeks at the thought, and she took a large sip of her soda and turned back to her homework.

"Hey, Eiji-sempai, what do you think is up with Echizen today?" A familiar voice sounded, to her right.

Sakuno looked up to see Momo-sempai and Eiji-sempai heading toward her, walking along the dirt path that passed near her.

Once she and Ryoma had graduated from Sheishun, they found out that all of his old teammates were going to this high school.

And they were all on the tennis team.

Yeah, she thought it was weird, too. I mean, really, what were the odds?

Eiji shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't notice much of a difference. I mean, he still whooped your butt." He laughed.

Momo narrowed his eyes. "Yeah, but he just seemed so…_distracted_."

Sakuno raised an eyebrow, her attention unwillingly torn from her homework.

"And he _still_ whooped your butt." Eiji was still laughing. Momo punched his arm and pouted.

"Maybe I didn't want to put too much effort in when Ryoma was obviously not at the top of his game, did you think of that?" Momo said, rather loud and defensively.

Eiji stopped and dropped to his knees, his fist pounding the ground, he was laughing so hard. Momo just looked away and continued to pout until Eiji had himself under control. Sakuno covered her mouth to keep from giggling. The boys hadn't noticed her yet.

Eiji wiped his eyes and looked up at Momo. "You're kidding, right?" Momo still refused to look at him. Eiji rolled his eyes and got to his feet. "Maybe he's just got a lot on his mind, or something?" He suggested, serious now.

Now Momo rolled his eyes. "Since when does _Echizen_ have anything on his mind except Tennis?"

Sakuno buried her head in her hands, caught between blushing and laughing. She knew from personal experience that Ryoma could think of a LOT more than Tennis.

Eiji shrugged again. "Maybe his cat's sick. He likes his cat, doesn't he?"

Momo scoffed. "A _cat_ is not enough to throw Echizen off his game."

"Well, maybe he met a girl." Eiji suggested, and started walking again.

Momo barked out a laugh. "Yeah, right! Ryoma with a _girlfriend_? Like he even _has_ hormones to speak of?"

A wet sputtering from behind them made both boys turn around. Sakuno was leaning over her homework, trying to save it from the soda she'd accidentally spit everywhere.

"Ryuzaki-chan, are you alright?" Eiji asked. "Was there something wrong with your soda?"

Sakuno shook her head and flapped her hands at them. "No, no, I'm fine," she choked out. "Go on, I'll be fine."

Momo looked at Eiji and shrugged.

(=O.o=)

Nanako answered the door when the bell rang. "Sakuno!" She greeted the young girl, grinning. "Ryoma's not here yet, but I just made some onigiri! Did you want some while you wait?"

Sakuno grinned up at Ryoma's cousin. Nanako was always so nice to her. "I'd love some, thank you." She said. She slid her feet into a pair of slippers and darted over to the stairs to drop her bag, before she followed Nanako into the kitchen.

Nanako stopped abruptly in the kitchen doorway, put her hands on her hips and frowned. Sakuno almost ran into her. "That's funny…" she muttered, her eyes narrowed.

Sakuno's eyebrows drew together, and she looked around. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Nanako tsk-ed. "I was sure I'd put the onigiri right there…" she said, pointing to a counter. A counter that was suspiciously empty, save a few grains of rice.

"Sakuno-chan!" Sakuno heard from behind her, only the voice was so muffled it sounded more like "Sa-oo-nuh-cham!"

Nanako turned first, and shrieked. "_Uncle!_ You ate all my onigiri!"

Sakuno turned. Ryoma's father, Nanjiro, stood at the doorway to the kitchen, his eyes wide and innocent. It might even had worked (Nanjiro had quite an 'innocent look') If it hadn't been for the fact that his cheeks were bulging and grains of rice were stuck all around his mouth.

Both of Sakuno's hands flew to her mouth to keep herself from laughing. Nanjiro took off like a shot. Nanako bolted after him, scolding him at the top of her voice.

Sakuno dropped into one of the chairs around the kitchen table, giggling despite her best efforts.

Ryoma's mother walked into the kitchen holding an empty tray (presumably the one that had held the pilfered onigiri) shaking her head and rolling her eyes. "Someday that man is going to get himself royally pounded." She muttered. She grinned as Sakuno let out a fresh burst of giggles.

"You mean he hasn't already?" She squeaked out through her laughter.

Ryoma's mom dropped the tray into the sink and grinned at her. "Are you here to study again, Sakuno-chan?" she asked.

Sakuno's giggles abruptly stopped, and she turned bright red. "Um, yes…"

She shook her head. "I'm afraid my son isn't much of a tutor. You've been coming over almost every day these past few weeks. Have your grades improved at all?"

Sakuno's expression was almost frantic. "Oh, no, they have!" she said quickly, "But English is so hard for me, and my grades still aren't as good as they should be, and I don't want them to drop again-" She was leaning forward in her chair, her face pleading.

"Sakuno, Sakuno dear, it's alright." Echizen-san laughed. "I was just wondering. I know my son, that's all. He's not always the most polite. You know it doesn't bother me that you're here."

"Oh," Sakuno laughed, looking relieved. "Thank you." She fiddled with her skirt, nervously.

Echizen paused, frowning. "Sakuno, dear, what happened to your shirt?"

Sakuno looked down, blushing, and her hands instantly came up to cover the light brown stains on her usually clean white shirt. "Oh, I, uh, spilled my soda." She muttered.

Echizen-san tsk-ed and started out of the kitchen. "I'll get you one of Ryoma's old shirts." She called over her shoulder. "And put that one in the wash for you. You can't let stains like that set, you know."

Sakuno stood up, meaning to follow Echizen-san and tell her it was alright (or in the very least, help her) but Nanjiro was blocking the doorway. His mouth was empty, and there was a bright red spot on his cheek where Nanako had slapped him.

(Sakuno had a sneaking suspicion that Nanjiro had been slapped often enough in his lifetime that it didn't even faze him anymore. She was afraid to ask, though)

"Well, I think it's unnatural." He said, and crossed his arms over his chest.

Sakuno tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"That a boy can spend hours alone in his room with a girl, and all they do is study." Nanjiro answered. Sakuno's blush (which had faded) returned full force. "A boy his age should be dating, at least, if not trying for second or third base."

Sakuno was blushing so hard, she was having trouble speaking. "Maybe…maybe he just hasn't met a girl he'd…um…want to do that with?" She said, her voice hardly more than a squeak.

Nanjiro scoffed. "What he needs isn't a girl, what he needs is to develop some hormones."

Sakuno coughed.

The front door slammed. "I'm home!" Ryoma called from the foyer.

(#O.O#)

"I missed you yesterday." Ryoma murmured into her ear. Sakuno whimpered.

His hand splayed across the outside of her thigh, as his lips played a hot trail of kisses down her neck to her collarbone. It was all Sakuno could do to keep from screaming.

His tongue darted out against her shoulder. Sakuno choked.

"_Ryoma…_" she moaned, unable to keep the pleasure from her voice. She swallowed and tried again. "Ryoma-" She gasped. His hand was on her hip, and he was pulling her closer. "You know, I really do need to study." She said, breathlessly.

He wasn't listening. He never did.

He leaned over, pressing her back against his pillows. Ryoma drew his mouth higher on her neck, until he could nibble her ear. Sakuno bit her lip against the sparks of pleasure that shot down her spine at the contact.

Her damn, treacherous body. _It _didn't care that she was failing English.

His hand finally left her leg, to slide underneath her shirt. His fingers brushed the skin just outside the fabric of her bra. Sakuno gasped and bucked, her fingers tightening against his shoulders. His shirt was already off, and his skin felt _so_ good underneath her hands.

She could feel his mouth twist into a smile, from where it was pressed against her neck. He loved it when he seduced her out of what little restraint she had against him.

Not the he ever had much trouble doing so.

God, she could hardly even _think_.

Her hands left his shoulder to slide up his neck. She dragged him from her shoulder back to her mouth to kiss him passionately. Ryoma growled into her mouth, and lifted her up to take her shirt completely off.

He returned to her lips, running his hands against every inch of bare skin he could find. Sakuno gasped, and pressed herself closer, wrapping her legs around his waist. Somewhere in the back of her mind she recalled her wanting him to stop, to actually help her with her English homework for once. But for the life of her, she couldn't make herself let go. Her skin was on fire, and all she could think of was pressing closer to him.

Ryoma dropped his head and pressed his lips against her neck, groaning. One hand was softly kneading the flesh of her lower back, and the other had dropped back to slide up and down her thigh. He was muttering something against her neck, but she couldn't seem to hear him. She thought it was because he was being so quiet, but she was having trouble focusing on anything other than what his hands were doing to her.

The hand he had against her back began to slide up, until he made contact with the clasp to her bra.

Sakuno gasped. It was too late now. There was only one thing she could say to bring them back to their senses. It was the last resort, and was only to be said in the direst of emergencies.

She took a deep, bracing breath, brought her lips close to his ear and whispered, "You know, if your dad knew about this, he'd be _so_ proud."

Ryoma froze, jumped back, and glared at her. Sakuno ignored him, and frantically searched for her shirt (well, actually, _his_ shirt, his mother had hers in the wash), before the shock of what she'd said wore off and he went right back to fondling her.

"_Sakuno_." He said, obviously mortally offended. "_That_ was a low blow."

Sakuno slid her shirt back on and turned to glare at him, trying her best to ignore how over-sensitized her skin still was. "Well, it's your own fault." She said petulantly.

"_My_ fault?" He said, his eyes wide. "How is that _my_ fault? _You_ said it!"

Ryoma didn't seem to want to put his shirt back on, so Sakuno refused to look at him. There was only so much of Topless Ryoma a girl could handle before losing control of her better judgment. "I tried to do my homework before I got here, because I know how you are." She said. She glanced back at him and pouted. "But your teammates walked by, talking about how you don't have hormones, and I choked on my soda and spilled it all over my homework."

She could feel Ryoma's fingers start to wrap around her shoulders. She jerked away, and grabbed one of his pillows for protection, turning to face him.

He smirked at her, raising an eyebrow. "How is that my fault? _I_ didn't say anything."

Sakuno glared. "It _is_ your fault, if you hadn't been acting weird, they wouldn't have said anything, and I would have gotten my homework done, and we wouldn't be having this conversation!" She squeaked.

Ryoma leaned closer. His smirk faded, and he seemed to be staring heatedly at her lips. Sakuno pressed herself as far back as she could, torn between panic and longing. Oh, this did _not_ bode well. (At least, not for her grades)

"That's not my fault either." He said. "If you'd come yesterday, like you said you would, I wouldn't have been so distracted-"

"_I didn't come yesterday because I'm failing English and I needed to get some actual studying done!_" She cut his off with a fierce whisper. If she tried to raise her voice any higher, she would have been screaming.

Both Ryoma's eyebrows were raised, "So we'll study." His face innocent (he was almost as good at that as his dad, but not quite). The hands holding the pillow that was protecting her loosened, her face hopeful. "Later." He murmured, tugging at the pillow.

Sakuno's grip tightened again, and she glared at him. "If you'd just tell everyone we're dating, this wouldn't be a problem." She growled.

Ryoma glared back. "If I told everyone we're dating, my _mother_, at least, wouldn't let me alone with you."

Sakuno turned away. "Exactly."

Turned away, she wasn't able to anticipate his newest attack on her defenses. He'd stopped trying to tug the pillow away, and was working around it, his hands on her waist and his lips again pressed against her neck.

Oh, she was _so_ failing English.

"Honestly, Sakuno." He murmured against her neck, finally pulling the pillow away from her and pressing closer. "What would you _rather_ be doing?"

Sakuno whimpered. "That's not _fair_." She whispered hoarsely. "I _need_ to get my grades up."

Ryoma's hands were back under her shirt, leaving trails of fire everywhere he touched. "I need _you._"

"You _need _to learn how to control your damn hormones." She tried to say, through labored breathing. But his mouth dipped to nibble her ear, and she was lost.

#X_x#

"I can't _believe_ you said that about my father." Ryoma grumbled.

Sakuno rolled her eyes. "Oh, deal with it. It's _your_ stupid fault I'm failing."

Ryoma stuck out his tongue, and started flipping through the English textbook with a bored expression.

"Hey, what does this word mean?" Sakuno asked, passing him the book she was reading, her pencil underneath the word she was having trouble with. "I can't find it in my pocket dictionary."

Ryoma glanced at the word, and laughed. "It means 'Hormones.'"

Sakuno rolled her eyes, snapped the book shut, and hit him upside the head with it.


End file.
